ProjectFlash: Formatted Memory
by marioandsonicFTW
Summary: What if something went wrong during Flash's hard reset. All of Flash's memories were lost in the reset. Will he be able to get them back? Will he want to get them back? Or will they be lost forever?
1. Clean Slate

**BEGINNING HARD RESET PROTOCOL….**

**FLASH THE HEDGEHOG CODE SHUTDOWN INITIATED…..**

**…**

**INITIATING REBOOT SEQUENCE….**

**LOADING ALL CHARACTER TRAITS…**

**PERSONALITY….100%**

**CONSCIOUSNESS….100%**

_"Huh? ...Where am I? …Why is everything black? And…who am I?"_

**BACKSTORY….100%**

_"Oh! I remember! My name is Flash. Everything is coming back to me. I must be being uploaded to the game."_

**MODEL…..100%**

_"I'm feeling very stiff. I can barely move. It's like I was hit by a truck. Hopefully it wasn't the G.U.N. truck."_

**LOADING OF CHARACTER TRAITS COMPLETE…..**

**LOADING MEMORY PRECEDING REBOOT…..**

**. . . . . . . ERROR ERROR**

**MOST MEMORY FILES CORRUPTED. . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

_"Hey. Something is coming to me, like I'm trying to remember something, but I can't wrap my head around it…"_

**INITIATING MEMORY DECODING PROTOCOL…..**

**UPLOADING CORRUPTED MEMORY FILES FOR RESTORATION**

**…0%**

**LOADING UNCORRUPTED MEMORY…..**

_"What? What am I…?"_

"I don't know who you are or how you got out of your game, but YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE OR ANYWHERE IN THIS ARCADE! FILTHY GLITCH!" A voice yelled.

**…20%**

"Wh-What? …G-Glitch?"

"_Everyone hates you…"_

**….40%**

"Who said that!?"

"Flash…you're not a real character."

**…50%**

* * *

A blurry vision became visible. A black void was below as pieces of ground became deleted. Flash saw himself floating above the landscape of a dark forest with a mansion in the middle being deleted. Below him was someone. Someone he couldn't recognize. His vision was too blurry to see who it was clearly.

"_What's going on?"_

"Flash! Snap out of it! Don't you remember me!?" Another voice called out.

It sounded like it was coming from the person below Flash. It wasn't a very clear voice, but it sounded like a girl.

"_I'm sorry, but I don't think I do."_ Flash thought.

"It's me, ..a…e…l…e!" The name was too hard to hear.

"_Who!?"_

Suddenly, the ground that the strange girl was standing on began to crumble as it started to sink into the black void.

"FLASH!" The girl screamed.

"V…e….p..! NO!" A male voice roared.

"_She's gonna fall!"_

"_Why should you care?"_ said another voice that seemed to come from within his own head.

"HELP ME!"

Flash ignored the voice and plummeted down to save the girl. He grabbed her by what seems to be the hood on a sweatshirt. He held her with one hand. Even though she was right in front of him, Flash couldn't make out what she looked like. Not even the colors were clear.

"Flash…?"

Flash raised his other hand and began to charge energy.

_Wait! What am I doing? Who is she?"_ Flash thought.

He tried to stop himself, but his body wouldn't let him.

"_Stop! STOP!"_ He begged himself.

"Flash! I know you're in there! You remember me! We played together! We raced together! You're my friend!"

"_I…can't. I don't know who you are."_

His other hand was about to shoot at the girl.

**…100%**

"_NO!"_

**REBOOT COMPLETE**

* * *

Flash jolted awake, sitting up in his bed in his room in the Tropical Resort. At least, he knows it's his room because it was programmed into his backstory. He was breathing heavily as if he woke up from a nightmare. It seemed like one, but he was just uploaded into the game. He looked to his left and there were others in his room. There was Sonic and Tails and he knew them even though they had never met. After all, it is their game and he was a newcomer. Next to Sonic, was…himself? It was himself in the model used for his backstory. There were also another two whom he had no knowledge to possibly recognize them. Standing behind Sonic and Tails was a big guy, about 9 feet tall, more or less, with messy auburn hair and huge blocky hands. He was wearing an orange-red plaid shirt under a pair of overalls with one of the straps broken. The other person was standing right next to his bed. It was a small girl who was maybe nine-years-old. She was wearing a mint green sweatshirt with a brown skirt that looked like a chocolate-peanut butter cup. She wore mismatched leggings and her hair was black and sprinkled with candy and styled into a pony-tail and held up by what seemed to be licorice.

"Flash!" The girl cried in an extremely happy voice.

She pounced on top of Flash, giving him a big hug.

"Whoa!" Flash exclaimed in surprise.

She quickly broke the hug and punched him on the shoulder.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" She pouted.

"I'm sorry, but…do I know you?"

Everyone but Flash took on an expression of shock. Silence was set in the room until someone walked out of the closet. A man wearing a blue buttoned shirt with a nametag that read "Felix" embroidered on it, blue pants with a tool belt strapped on that held a golden hammer, and a blue cap.

"What's going on? Did it work?" He asked.

The girl seemed to ignore the man that just walked in and focused on Flash.

"Flash, can't you remember? I'm Vanellope." The girl called Vanellope said, gesturing toward herself.

"…No. The name doesn't sound familiar. I know Sonic and Tails, not personally, and…" Flash glanced at his doppelganger. "…I don't know you. Who are you?"

The apparent copy of Flash stared at him with a confused expression.

"Flash, I'm Nega Flash. Look."

The double's pixels sparked white and changed to a dark purple. His spines turned upward, his pupils disappeared, and a black mark was emblazed on his chest. He looked at Flash, hoping that he would recognize him.

"Oh. It's only you." Flash said, seeming uninterested in his opposite half. "Can someone tell me what is going on?" He asked.

"Flash, can you remember anything from the past two days?" Sonic asked.

"Why would I? I was just uploaded into the game from an update, wasn't I?"

"Y-You mean…you can't remember anything at all?" Vanellope asked.

"Nope. Nothing. Clean slate. New character ready to go." He said cheerily.


	2. Scattered Reminiscence

Vanellope couldn't believe what was happening right in front of her. Flash lost all his memory. Everything they did, their race at Sugar Rush, the glitching practice, their friendship, all of it was wiped from his code. Looking more closely at him, Flash's fur didn't seem to be as bright as it usually was. His cyan fur seemed to be duller and not as vibrant. Even his eyes were different. They weren't golden amber, but rather dull grey, yet they still had that spark of innocence that he always had.

"Felix, check Flash's memory banks." Tails said.

"O-Of course." Felix complied.

He wasted no time in jumping back into the code room and locating the memory banks of the characters. He found the code with everyone's memory and tapped it twice. The code opened up and listed the memories of all the characters in the game. Tails…Amy…Cream…Silver…Then Flash.

"Here it is!"

Felix opened Flash's memory and the screen showed all his memory files were there, but few of them were actually readable. A window then popped up and revealed the progress of rewriting the illegible files.

**1% Complete…**

"Hmm…I found the problem!" He called out.

Felix floated through the code back into the bedroom.

"Well? What's wrong with Flash?" Ralph asked.

"Nothing is actually wrong with Flash himself, but I'm guessing that when he crashed, most of his memory files became corrupted. But, the game's system is working to decode the corrupted files so that Flash's code can read it again." Felix explained.

"Then, what do we do?" Nega asked.

"There's nothing to do. All we can do is wait for his memory to come back to him."

"Wait, wait. Hold the phone." Flash said. "Are you saying that I was already active before all this?"

"Of course, Flash. You've been active for a whole year already." Sonic said.

"What!? A whole year!? I've been in this game for a year and I can't remember any of it?"

"Calm down, Flash." Felix assured. "You will be able to remember. It's just gonna take a bit of time."

"How long?" Flash asked.

"A few days. Maybe even a week or two."

Flash looked down at the rug, with his ears drooping downward.

"Uh…Can I get a moment alone?" He asked as he swiftly walked out the door of his room into the Resort.

The others wanted to stop him from leaving, but they all held back. Flash had to get out of there. He wanted some time to think. He walked through the Resort, thinking about the past life that he can't remember.

_"How can I not remember? Wouldn't it be as easy as remembering what I had for breakfast yesterday? Why is it that I can't remember?"_ These thoughts circled around in his head. _"Wait a minute. They had the code room open. What were they doing in there? Were they trying to fix something? Wait another minute…The short blue guy with the hammer said that my memories were corrupted when I…crashed. Did he mean that my code crashed?"_ Flash started to get short of breath. _"How did I crash? Did my programming fail? Was there a glitch in my code? Did I catch…a…virus?"_

After walking around, caught in a whirlwind of confusion, Flash found himself at the beginning of Act 1 of Tropical Resort. He felt as though he had been here before, even though he has no memory of being here.

_"I think…that…I was here before, but…Aw! Come on! Think!"_ He groaned in a frustrated voice, tapping his fist on his forehead.

_"Here we…GO!"_

Flash looked in front of him and saw that a transparent version of himself, like a ghost from a racing game, was running off into the level.

"Hey! Wait!" Flash shouted as he ran after his ghost.

Both he and the ghost sped to a spring that launched both of them to a higher platform. Some robots were in their way and the ghost seemed to just boost past them. Flash followed and boosted through the robots, wrecking them. Soon they came across a rail that leads to the next section. Flash continued to follow the ghost and both went grinding to the next section where the ghost just suddenly stopped in his tracks, right in front of a horde of robots and a wisp capsule. Flash screeched to a halt right behind the ghost.

"Hey! Who are you?" He asked.

The ghost didn't respond. He only stared at the robots ahead of him and let out a sad sigh. The ghost began walking back the way he came with his head down, as if disappointed.

_"Who am I kidding?"_ Flash's ghost said. _"I'll never be able to be played as."_

The ghost walked right through Flash and faded away.

_"Was that…one of my memories?"_ Flash thought.

He turned towards the horde of robots and ran towards them.

LAZER!

Flash transformed into a dull cyan laser and sliced through every one of the robots like a bunch of bowling pins. He jumped the launch ramp over to the next area and jumped up to some suspended platforms hanging in midair. He just stopped there, looking up at the star-filled sky, wondering about whatever happened in the past.

_"I'm sure everything will resolve itself when their back._" Flash thought.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Someone asked.

Flash turned around and saw that Nega Flash, using the backstory model, was right behind him.

"Oh. Sorry for being in your way. I'll just leave." Flash says in a droll tone as he tries to walk away.

Nega pulls him back by grabbing his hand.

"Hold on. Where you going?" Nega asked.

"Anywhere, but here." Flash answers as he pulls his hand away.

"Hey. What's wrong? I only want to help."

"Why would someone like you wanna help me out?"

"Because were practically twin brothers. We were programmed to be one character and we look mostly the same-"

"WE ARE NOT THE SAME!" Flash yelled.

Nega Flash was surprised by his outburst. It wasn't like him to get angry easily.

"Look. I don't know what your game is, but I don't want anything to do with it, so leave me alone." Flash growled angrily as he began to jog away. "Why don't you go and plot with Eggman or something? Isn't that what bad guys do?"

Flash ran off back to his room while Nega just stood there. That wasn't the same Flash that he watched over for the past year. Losing his memories did something to him.

_"Flash…what happened to you?"_ Nega thought as he walked away in the opposite direction.


	3. Rough Tensions

"_Geez! I can't believe that guy!"_ Flash thought while running back to his room. _"And what was he doing with my backstory model? It's not meant to be an alternate costume."_

As he approached the door to his room, he saw Sonic and Tails waiting up for him. The other three that were in his room probably already left.

"Sonic! Tails!" Flash called, his mood beginning to brighten.

"Flash! Are you feeling okay?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just a bit confused. That's all."

"Don't worry about it. Your memories will come back and we'll help you out with remembering." Tails said.

"You know, you're right." Flash smiled.

"Listen, the arcade is gonna open in about half an hour. You think you're up to going active today?" Sonic asked.

Flash thought for a moment. Being playable is what he was programmed for and he would like to see the gamers reaction to a new character. Then again, going on today means that he would have to deal with Nega Flash, which is the last thing he wants to do. The thought of it just annoys him. But he can't just ignore the responsibility of being a playable character and that is what he is.

"Sure. I'll go on today. It beats sitting around in my room all day. Listen. After the day's done, you think you can help me start getting my memories back?"

"Of course! As soon as we get the all clear." Sonic said, with a thumbs up and a wink.

"By the way, who were those other three that were in here?" Flash asked.

"Oh! They were Felix, Ralph, and Vanellope. They're friends of ours." Tails explained.

"Did I know them?"

"Sure you did! Especially Vanellope. You two seemed like the closest of friends." Sonic remarked.

"_Huh…She did seem kinda worried about me when I saw her."_ Flash thought.

"Speaking of friends, did Nega catch up with you?" Sonic asked. "He ran after you a few minutes after you left."

The mention of him started to make Flash's code boil.

"What about him?" Flash said, coldly.

Sonic noticed Flash's mood change quickly.

"We…thought that he went to talk with you. Did something happen?"

"No. Nothing happened and I hope nothing will, because I don't want anything to do with him!" Flash shouted, wanting to get the point across.

Sonic and Tails fell silent. They had never seen Flash get this heated up. It was so…unlike him. An awkward silence filled the room for a moment.

"We...better get going. Arcade's gonna open soon." Tails informed, hoping to break the silence.

"…Yeah. I better get ready too." Flash said, suddenly feeling embarrassed about his outburst.

"We'll see you after closing." Sonic said, exiting through the door with Tails right behind him.

"Bye." Flash waved, weakly.

He paced around his room for a few minutes before his door opened. It was Nega Flash who entered the room. Flash was about to speak before Nega stopped him.

"Look. Before you say anything, just know that you and I can't go active today unless we cooperate. We're supposed to be one character, but our codes are split. We have to merge back into one code." Nega explained.

Flash crossed his arms and turned his back toward Nega.

"Then I guess there's nothing to argue. I'm fine with it, but only while the arcade is open." Flash said.

Nega rippled into white pixels before they turned dark purple and changed into his original model. He held his hand up to Flash.

"Then let's go."

Flash looked at Nega with his hand held out and quickly grabbed his hand, just so he can get it over with. Both of them flickered into cyan and purple static and their codes merged into one. The one code that was originally called ProjectFlash. The scrambled binary settled, leaving only Flash.

"We're ready." Flash said.

* * *

Mr. Litwak was running a few checks around the arcade before opening time. It was a Saturday morning so the today would the busiest day of the week. Kids were waiting outside eagerly to come in and play. Litwak chuckled.

"Alright. Alright. Time to open." He unlocked the glass door and made way for the excited kids. "Welcome, kids! Come on in."

The arcade was soon flooded with kids and teens, racing to the game of their choice to play first.

* * *

Flash was waiting around in a small cyan room. He was busy trying to remember at least a glimpse of his forgotten memories, but nothing was coming to him.

"_Busy reminiscing?"_ A voice asked.

"Don't try to make small talk with me." Flash said, bluntly.

"_Hey. I just want to help out too."_

"Why would you ever want to help me? Do me a favor and stay out of my thoughts. I have enough to deal with already."

Nega stayed silent.

* * *

The whole day went by pretty slowly. A lot of gamers were excited about the new character in the Sonic the Hedgehog game and Flash was played as the entire day. Though he was pretty happy about it, he could keep his mind away from trying to remember more. There were some bits and pieces that came to him, like a vision of a candy covered world filled with the sweetest treats imaginable. He was pretty sure it wasn't Sweet Mountain because it had a different kind of design. Another was of a party. The whole cast of characters were there and it seemed to be a party for him. Sonic would probably know so he would have to ask him about it. Nega never said a word to Flash since before opening. He was more occupied with thinking about why Flash changed the way he did. Did the virus leave some sort of impression on him? It wouldn't be possible since it was clearly destroyed. Why does Flash distance himself so much from him?

Near closing time, Mr. Litwak was getting ready to close up for the day when someone came in through the doors. It was a man of about 28 years who wore a light blue long-sleeved shirt, a white tie around his collar, and black slacks.

"Mr. Litwak?" The man asked.

"That's my name, son." He answered.

"I'm Ramon. I work software over at Sega. I was going to send you an e-mail, but I was nearby so I thought I'd come in person instead."

"Well, what do you need?" Mr. Litwak asked.

"I just wanted to tell you that you'll be getting a software update for the Sonic the Hedgehog game you own." Ramon explained.

"Hmm…What's it for?"

"The update is going to install a new game into the system and also fix some issues."

"What kind of issues?"

"There's some unused content in the system's memory that's causing an issue with many other Sonic the Hedgehog cabinets. Apparently, an unused character in the game had a virus that was causing games to crash. The update will remove the character and the virus from the system memory."

"Alright, then. When is the update going to get here?"

"You can expect it in about three days."

"Well thanks, Ramon. I'll keep an eye out for it."

Ramon waved and left the arcade.

"Alright, everyone! It's time to close up!"

In the Sonic the Hedgehog game, a boss battle with Nega Flash was taking place. Nega was facing the screen and heard the whole thing.

"_This isn't good."_ Nega thought.


	4. Author's Note

Hey everyone! Glad you enjoyed the story I just want to make a note that both stories that come after ProjectFlash have already been published on my profile, so look them up if you want.


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